Columbia, South Carolina · Football Bowl Subdivision · public university. University of South Carolina-Columbia reported $204.6M of athletic revenue in 2024-25 against $203.3M of expenses. That is 1.8 times the $116.0M median for the 128 Football Bowl Subdivision programs, and it ranks 16th of 128 in the FBS and 16th of 358 across Division I. Revenue rose 11.4% on the prior year’s $183.7M.
Analysis by Matthew Hanauer, PhD, Chief Technology Officer at Civly · All 358 Division I schools
All figures come from the school’s own filings for 2024-25 and are compared with the 128 programs in its group.
Paying the full $21.3M revenue-sharing cap for 2026-27 would take 10.4% of this department’s revenue. The cap is the most a school may pay its athletes directly, and no school is required to pay it. Third-party name, image and likeness money is uncapped and does not count against it.
571 athletes were counted at the school in the survey year, filling 327 men’s and 411 women’s roster spots across 12 sports. The two counts differ because an athlete who plays two sports fills a spot in both. Enrollment is 29,015. Football is the largest single line, $76.5M of revenue against $55.9M of expenses, which is 37% of what the department earned.
Each row shows one sport’s revenue, expenses and athletes.
| Sport | Revenue | Expenses | Net | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Football | $76.5M | $55.9M | +$20.7M | 119 | 0 |
| Basketball | $28.6M | $24.2M | +$4.4M | 14 | 31 |
| Baseball | $8.0M | $8.0M | +$0 | 43 | 0 |
| Track and Field and Cross Country (combined) | $6.9M | $6.9M | +$0 | 79 | 160 |
| Soccer | $5.0M | $5.0M | +$0 | 29 | 43 |
| Swimming and Diving (combined) | $4.0M | $4.0M | +$0 | 23 | 48 |
| Softball | $4.0M | $4.0M | +$0 | 0 | 27 |
| Equestrian | $3.4M | $3.4M | +$0 | 0 | 45 |
| Tennis | $3.3M | $3.3M | +$0 | 9 | 8 |
| Golf | $3.2M | $3.2M | +$0 | 11 | 8 |
| Volleyball | $2.7M | $2.7M | +$0 | 0 | 20 |
| Beach Volleyball | $1.1M | $1.1M | +$0 | 0 | 21 |
The table shows the 12 sports at University of South Carolina-Columbia that reported money or participants in 2024-25. Sports the school surveyed but left empty are not shown. Revenue and expenses attributed to no single sport, which at most departments is the larger share of both, are counted only in the department totals above, so these rows do not add to those totals. Sort by any column.
We have verified 2 organizations as funding this program. Their tax returns report what each raised.
“To Support the University of South Carolina'S Athletic Department By Providing the Necessary Financial Resources for Scholarships and Other Educational Services.”
The link to University of South Carolina-Columbia comes from what this organization says it exists for, in the mission statement on its own tax return, plus its registration in the same state. Its 990 mission names the school and uses athletics or NIL language, and it is based in Columbia.
“To Help Promote, Support, and Advance Charitable Organizations and Causes, Educate the General Public Regarding These Chartiable Organizations and Causes, and to Make Positive Impacts On Communities, By Utilizing the Name-Image-Likeness and Notoriety of University of South Carolina Studnet-Athletes.”
The link to University of South Carolina-Columbia comes from what this organization says it exists for, in the mission statement on its own tax return, plus its registration in the same state. Its 990 mission names the school and uses athletics or NIL language, and it is based in Columbia.
The revenue-sharing cap is the most a school may pay its athletes directly: $20.5M for 2025-26 and $21.3M for 2026-27. No school is required to pay it. Third-party NIL money is uncapped and does not count against it. No federal athletics survey covers a revenue-sharing year yet. The first is expected around spring 2027.
Every college that takes federal student aid and fields a team files this survey each year under the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act. Because filing is a federal requirement, the survey covers private universities that NCAA-based databases do not include. The figures are the school’s own reported numbers for 2024-25, and the Department of Education does not audit them. Reported revenue includes direct institutional support and student fees, so every department in the survey reports revenue at least equal to its expenses, and a reported surplus does not mean a profit.
A Form 990 shows what an organization raised. It never shows what any athlete was paid. No figure in the funder section is anyone’s compensation or the value of any deal. The form has no single donor-money line. Some organizations book donor money as contributions and others as program service revenue or fees for services, so each funder card lists total revenue first.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act survey, 2024-25; IRS Form 990 e-file releases for donor entities. Analysis: Civly.
Civly Athletics vets athletes. Collective Prospecting finds and qualifies the donors behind a collective and traces each name to a filing or a public post.